Electoral Cybersecurity: A Brief Guide for Donor Program Development
Source: USAID | Year: 2023
Election integrity is a critical element for democracy. Without secure, safe, and effective elections, democracy and its institutions are unable to flourish, threats to peaceful transition can emerge, and progress towards civil rights can be derailed. The way an election is managed shapes public perception, both among citizens and the world stage. International assistance for electoral processes helps strengthen and protect electoral integrity through capacity building, risk assessments, legal framework and dispute resolution mechanisms, training, and other assistance activities. Nevertheless, elections are rapidly leveraging new and old technologies within elections, such that technology and cybersecurity now play a central role in ensuring electoral integrity.
This briefing paper was developed for the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance Center (DRG Center) to inform a broad audience, including USAID personnel, USAID implementing partners, and local electoral stakeholders, on cybersecurity issues and program development recommendations. The paper first discusses the context within which cybersecurity programming is necessary in section II. Section III presents a four-step process to assess context and threat environment, identify and understand important EMB institutional partners, assess EMB cybersecurity capacity, and finally determine the level of openness to cybersecurity programming assistance within an EMB. Section IV explores various types of cybersecurity programming, followed by Section V with conclusions and recommendations.
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